Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Conventions
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Beginnings: From the Late Medieval to Madame de Lafayette
- Part II The Eighteenth Century: Learning, Letters, Libertinage
- 7 The Early French Novel and the Circum-Atlantic
- 8 Anglo-French Relations and the Novel in the Eighteenth Century
- 9 The Fiction of Diderot and Rousseau
- 10 The Memoir Novel
- 11 Epistolary Fiction: The Novel in the Postal Age
- 12 The Libertine Novel
- 13 Sade and the Novel
- Part III After the Revolution: The Novel in the Long Nineteenth Century
- Part IV From Naturalism to the Nouveau Roman
- Part V Fictions of the Fifth Republic: From de Gaulle to the Internet Age
- Index
- References
12 - The Libertine Novel
from Part II - The Eighteenth Century: Learning, Letters, Libertinage
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2021
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Conventions
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Beginnings: From the Late Medieval to Madame de Lafayette
- Part II The Eighteenth Century: Learning, Letters, Libertinage
- 7 The Early French Novel and the Circum-Atlantic
- 8 Anglo-French Relations and the Novel in the Eighteenth Century
- 9 The Fiction of Diderot and Rousseau
- 10 The Memoir Novel
- 11 Epistolary Fiction: The Novel in the Postal Age
- 12 The Libertine Novel
- 13 Sade and the Novel
- Part III After the Revolution: The Novel in the Long Nineteenth Century
- Part IV From Naturalism to the Nouveau Roman
- Part V Fictions of the Fifth Republic: From de Gaulle to the Internet Age
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter offers a definition of the libertine novel as the erotic fiction of the Age the Enlightenment. Not only do libertine novels embody the intellectual audacity of the period through their transgressive and free-thinking characters; they also join efforts by scientists and philosophes to unveil the secret workings of the human machine whilst imagining a society fit for it. This chapter contends that this erotic and enlightened fiction represents a crucial element in the history of both literature and ideas, since it epitomises the moment when the Western world first stepped into modernity, challenging old ideals and idols, and redefining pleasure as any individual’s inalienable and natural right.
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- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French , pp. 220 - 236Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021